| Show V 20 I Sunday May 7 2000 Business Standard-Examne- WEEKLY WALL STREET ' ’ I’J 7 'll jUJiI j ’ " gree of Master of International of Management at the spring comTo have mencement ceremony of BusinessPeople reports news Top Utah businesspeople items considered for this column information should be received by 5 pm Wednesday by sending it to BusinessPeople Business Editor Standard-Examin455 23rd St PO Box 951 Ogden UT 84402 Please include a stamped envelope ifyou would like photographs returned You can also fax information to 9 or send them by (as a basic message without attachments ) at bwallace'a standard net News items about general business happenings are featured in the Business Watch column which runs ever ed Thun-derbi- rd the American Graduate School of International Management The ceremony took place in Sun City West Ariz Thunderbird is the world’s oldest and largest graduate school of international management education 625-429- ail and ery Tuesday Hilton Carr Melissa Hilton and Peter Carr have been hired by FJCandN a Salt Lake branding firm Hilton was hired as an account manager and Carr was hired as a public relations account coordinator Hilton joins the agency after working at Bill Communications as group promotions manager She will consult with clients create strategic plans and manage advertising accounts Carr a Utah native will City-bas- Stinger Jolley Janalee Stinger and Carrie Jolley have opened Bee Well at 875 N Main St No 1 Layton The company uses the Bio Energetic Stress Test as an assessment tool that enables the gathering of information about the body’s current state of health by measuring energy flow through the body By testing accupres-sur- e points in the hands and feet the BEST system indicates whether parts of the body are stressed weakened or balanced and can suggest remedies The business 593-935- phone number Cornwall & Shaun Myers vice president of the Myers Mor- tuaries elected was vice president of the Utah Funeral Directors Association at its re- is Mc- Carthy of Salt Lake City as a shareholder in the Ogden office Roberts formerly general counsel and senior vice president of Ogden-base- d MarketStar Corp is a member of the firm’s litigation section munications law appellate practice employment law and pro- fessional malpractice defense Christiansen works in Salt Lake City in the litigation section with an emphasis on intellectual property and employment law cently concluded Myers convention in Ogden Myers is a member of the Utah State vice president Pre-Nee- Board d of Myers Ever- green Memorial Park one of only six funeral directors in Utah to be honored with membership in the National Academy of Professional Funeral Ser- vice Practice the former president of the Hospice of Northern Utah and current president of the Foundation for Hospice Northern Utah practicing employment and labor law and business commercial and corporate litigation Also Jennifer K Anderson and Stephen K Christiansen have become shareholders at the firm Anderson works in Salt Lake City as a member of the litigation section with an emphasis on media and com- Robert Lew- sen recently became the first re- cipient of an award recognizing employees of Aeronautical Research Inc for their human- itarian endeavors It was pres-1- 1 in Annapolis Md Lewsen has been employed by ARINC since 1984 as an en- gineer His endeavors include work with the Ogden Lions Gub the Disaster Preparedness Red Cross team for Salt Lake City on the board of directors for the Weber State University Wildcat Club and Gridiron Club Chamber OgdenWeber committees and an organization formed to save Hill Air Force Base from closure Sue King’s Ace Hardware located in Ogden attended Ace’s spring Care Insurance m in Atlanta The Kings were Brian Nichol- son of Ogden re- ceived special honors in the and Wedding Portrait Photographers International Awards of Excellence Print Competition Hortiu Agency LLC as a long-tercare representative in the greater Salt convention and exhibit April among the more than 15000 ace retailers employees vendors and guests who attended the convention They also got to meet football legend John Madden during the event - YORK With just - buy sell or NEW word - a Wall Street ana- lyst can change a company’s for- tune But for the average investor it’s not always easy to determine the true meaning of the words investment firms use to rate stocks Analysts employ a variety of terms and criteria to rate stocks so investors may swim in a sea of terms like “outperform" “accu- als for some stocks More critically Wall Street watchdogs say analysts are facing increasing pressure to issue only positive stock ratings making “sell” recommendations so rare that they’re essentially useless “There’s enough bias in the system that investors really ought to be skeptical” said Louis M Thompson Jr president and chief executive officer of the National Investor Relations Institute As of May 1 less than 1 percent of the 28000 stock ratings tracked by research firm First CallThomson Financial were recommendations to sell The vast majority - 739 percent -were equivalent to “buy” or “strong buy” recommendations said Chuck Hill First Call’s director of research There are some valid reasons for the preponderance of positive ratings analysts said First analysts choose the companies they cover Rather than slap a “sell” rating on a weak or middling company most analysts will simply not cover the firm But critics including Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Arthur Levitt believe relations between the investment banking side of their firms and the companies they cover Levitt in several speeches over the past year has said the system amounts to a “web of dysfunctional relationships” between brokerages and corporations The pressure to give companies positive coverage has intensified in recent years market watchers said Most Wall Street brokerages have changed the way they compensate analysts awarding them fatter paychecks if they help bring in clients to do deals with the investment banking side of their firms Some companies aware that they hold power in the relationship have curtailed access for analysts who are critical of the company or its stock “Companies have always tried to curry favor with the analysts but it goes the other way too” Thompson said The skewed ratings system means individual investors must carefully parse the research handed down from Wall Street experts said “If you know how to interpret it Wall Street research is a useful thing” said Hill “You just have to know that when they say ‘buy’ they mean ’hold’ and when they say Tiold’ they probably mean ‘sell’” Investors should also stay attuned to any shifts in analysts’ positions market watchers said On April 24 Rick Sherlund who follows Microsoft for Goldman Sachs removed the stock from Goldman’s list of recommended names and downgraded it to “market outperform” well-regard- ed from “buy” Sherlund’s action came as the software maker was losing its antitrust fight with the government and as it warned analysts that profit growth may slow in the coming year Wall Street clearly native resi- dent and Utah Hortin brings to the agency six years sales experience The Wall Street Journal Libraries compete for staff with dot-coseeking information managers The main public library in San Francisco has lost two staffers to companies in the past year even though it boasts a high starting salary for librarians of $46800 A recent opening at the Coronado City Public Library in California drew only four applicants The University of Washington Seattle says fewer than 60 percent of the graduates of its library and information-science- s school now go to libraries down from 80 percent a few years ago The Princeton NJ public library hasn’t had any staff rustled but it plans to raise salaries by 4 percent in a bid to keep and attract librarians And the American Library Association in Chicago says competition from library settings” is one reason for the declining ratio of to job postings in its periodic placement service At the association’s January meeting it logged 669 job openings and 202 Public libraries expect the problem to grow as librarians retire and recruits are wooed by higher-payin- g businesses “non-tradition- al job-seeke- rs job-seeke- rs Sleep on it but don’t flip it That message supports sales of a new mattress The $72 billion mattress industry is hardly a hotbed of innovation But Simmons Co Atlanta the third-largeUnited States mattress maker is causing a bit of a stir as it rolls st m 9199 3100 12199 6100 12 months- - Daily S&P 500 closes S&P 1600 1550 1500 1450 1 400 1350 1300 1250 1200 1150 1100 1050 1000 950 900 500 143263 ri V -- 1980 for the week ending Fnday May 5 2000 All-ti- high: 152746 March 24 2000 T 6199 9199 3100 12199 ! 6100 5500 5000 Nasdaq 4 500 381682 -- 4 000 43 84 for the week ending Fnday May 5 2000 All-ti- 3500 3000 high: ' 2500 5048 62 March 10 2000 2000 6199 9199 12199 3100 6100 AP interpreted Sherlund’s downgrade as a reason to sell - Microsoft stock fell 15 percent that day This past week struggling engineering firm Stone & Webster proved that while “sell” recommendations hurt they are rarely a company’s worst problem On Tuesday Credit Suisse First Boston placed a rare “sell” recommendation on the stock knocking its share price to $412 on Tuesday from $625 on Monday But Stone & Webster had already seen its stock price whit two-side- one-side- one-side- Virtual to reality “Beenz” have jumped from the click world to the brick world via MasterCard Beenzcom Inc a New York provider of online rewards called “beenz” teams up with MasterCard International Inc to convert the credits to dollars Currently beenz can be spent only in the virtual world for goods and services But the new debit-car- d program expected to start later this month will let customers in North America transfer beenz from online accounts to a reloadable debit card at an exchange rate of 1000 beenz for $5 MasterCard says the partnership was made because its member banks were looking for a tled down from about $23 a year ' ago as it faced a cash crunch and debated putting its assets up for sale The Credit Suisse analyst ' who downgraded the stock was not available for comment - ' “Investors need to read be- tween the lines” said Robert M Balentine chief executive officer of investment advisory firm Balentine & Co in Atlanta “Look at the fundamental reasons that analysts give to back up their recommendations and get input from many different sources” -- way to tap into the developing online currency stream The collaborative program in’ “ cludes beenzcom MasterCard Columbus Bank & Trust Columbus Ga and FlexiGift Inc New York a tnarketer of stored-valu- e cards Beenz “rewardzeards” are also planned for ' Britain and Australia later this year Got it in writing Employment contracts were included in 45 percent of executive placements last year up from 35 percent the year before according to a survey of more than 300 executive search firms by Exec-UNNorwalk Conn a organization et fee-bas- ed career-manageme- nt Spend now reap later research-and-dCompanies with velopment programs are achieving faster growth and better gross margins than those ' that outsource the program or don’t have one says a survey of 452 product and service companies by Pricewaterhou- seCoopers se e- — fast-growi- One executive two cards Walter R Boos president of Content Technologies Inc a Bellevue Wash maker of security software has a traditional business card and one that identifies him as “Chief Enabler and Coach” Boos says the idea is to show that “we’re not big on organi-zatio- n charts” He hands out about twice as many of the informal cards j CONVENTION MEETING SCHEDULE Linkletter says he wants abolition of estate taxes The Associated Press ter whose television show ’ WASHINGTON - At 87 “People Are Funny” ran for 10 entertainer Art Linkletter isn’t years starting in 1955 and his ” daytime “House Party” which thinking about slowing down included the segment “Kids Say “I travel 200000 miles a the Damdest Things” appeared I 70 times a year I on CBS for 26 year speak years “Why write a book about every three should people who’ve spent I’ve 26 books I’ve their lives years got trying to assemble written I run five businesses I ' sit on boards of directors I’m a something have it all taken when they pay taxes on it away regent at Pepperdine Universall the way through?” J ity” the showbiz legend continRich people hire lawyers to ued on and on naming other find ways around the taxes so it ’ jobs He added a new one Friday: primarily effects the middle and lower classes he said House I crusader Washington anti-ta- x Linkletter speaking at a Republicans plan to bring up a ’ news conference on Capitol Hill measure this summer to slowly on behalf of the conservative phase out estate taxes United Seniors Association Linkletter a conservative Re- - I Inc called for the elimination publican who was ambassador of the federal estate tax also to Australia under President J called “inheritance” or “death” Reagan also said he plans to ’ taxes support George Bush for presi- Taxes paid on inheritances dent “I approve of ' from parent to child range from what he’s generally been doing" Linklet- 18 percent to 55 percent on ester said “I think (Vice Presi-- 1 tates up to $10 million with evdent Al) Gore’s a good guy and erything above that taxed at 55 OK but I think we’ve had that j percent kind of party operating long" “It’s immoral” said Linklet enough as president" i i I -- I -- Ed- ucator in Utah Valley by the Utah Valley Family Practice Residency Marshall is a family practice physician at UUHN’s Parkway Medical Center Also Dr J $ I -- ed - 1 9500 6199 no-fli- named board-certifi- 10000 high: 1172298 Jan 14 2000 flipped Privately held Simmons recently went through a management upheaval and its new chairman Charlie Eitel says April sales at stores with the new line were up more than 25 percent from a year ago He adds that the p feature helped sales (notably on king-siz- e mattresses) even though most peod mattresses A ple don’t flip the smaller manufacturer has introduced a d mattress to its line and more may be on the way if successful Competitors note d that mattresses are easier to make — physi- The competition designed to recognize outstanding wedding and portrait photographers was held in conjunction with the organization’s 20th annual World of Wedding & Portrait Photography ConChristopher vention and Trade Show in “Chris” WilMarch Nicholson’s winning liams has been prints titled “True Smiles” and hired as a “Sleeping Beauty” received internal honorable mentions in the medicine physiWedding Photojournalism catecian at the gory Nicholson competed Greenwood against photographers from Medical Center around the world to win the Williams in Midvale by honor the University of Utah Health Network He replaces Dr Bret Pobanz of Ogden and Chuck Ilodges who is assumSean D Freston of Plain City ing management responsibility at the network’s Park City Famwere among 390 graduate business students awarded the de- - ily Health Center 10500 inner-sprin- Health Outstanding 11000 for w week ending Fnday May 5 2000 Alt-ti- v V 500 15605 two-side- Kent Marshall has been -- one-sid- ed University of Network cian Dr 1057786 out the Beautyrest 2000 mattress line to replace the d version it has made for 75 years The new design adds a dense-foabottom layer under the g mattress The idea is to reduce motion caused by one sleeper that may disturb another but a side benefit is it needn’t be of real estate Utah 11 companies raiding libraries for workers Dot-co- m Lake City area A Coalville 12000 i No flipping has joined Larson Long Term Jeff and Annette King of 6-- ed assist account managers in organizing publicity campaigns for clients 3 Michael T Roberts has rejoined the law firm of Van Cott Bagley The Associated Press that analysts keep their coverage positive in order to preserve good mulate” “neutral” and “hold" And because each investment firm has its own lexicon - and its own opinions - it can be hard to get a consensus of profession- Thursday Markets roundup Analysts: How to (enow Dow Jones what they’re saying rr V By EILEEN GLANTON and information about r Sources: Ogden Weber Convention A Visitors Bureau Salt Lake Convenuon & Visitors Bureau 0 0 i t t |
